Table 1.

Comparison of the demographic and clinical characteristics associated with emergency episodes in the last 4 years

Characteristics	2017 (n = 16,216)	2018 (n = 15,881)	2019 (n = 15,769)	2020 (n = 6017)	p
Emergency episodes, %	30.1	29.5	29.3	11.2*	<0.001
Median age, years (IQR)	6.0 (2.1–11.5)	5.8 (2.0–11.7)	5.7 (2.0–11.5)	5.7 (2.0–11.9)
Age groups, % (n)					<0.001
Newborn	0.8 (130)	0.9 (150)	1.0 (159)	2.0 (119)*
Infant	10.8 (1752)	10.9 (1733)	12.0 (1888)	11.1 (668)
Preschool	32.7 (5299)	34.3 (5446)	33.9 (5346)	32.9 (1980)
School	23.9 (3882)	22.1 (3503)	21.9 (3459)	21.4 (1290)
Teenager	31.8 (5153)	31.8 (5049)	31.2 (4917)	32.6 (1960)
Gender, % (n)					0.040
Male	53.1 (8614)	53.6 (8513)	52.1 (8214)*	53.5 (3218)
Female	46.9 (7602)	46.4 (7368)	47.9 (7555)*	46.5 (2799)
Admission source, % (n)					<0.001
Parents’ initiative	79.7 (12,927)	78.4 (12,448)	77.8 (12,266)	65.5 (3942)*
Phone line of NHS	4.2 (678)	5.4 (863)	6.5 (1029)	18.5 (1115)*
Primary health care	7.9 (1279)	7.6 (1203)	7.2 (1128)	6.4 (384)*
EMS	4.0 (648)	4.2 (663)	4.3 (676)	5.1 (308)*
Other NHS hospital	3.3 (540)	3.3 (525)	3.3 (525)	3.7 (222)
Private hospital	0.6 (100)	0.7 (118)	0.6 (98)	0.4 (25)*
Medical appointment	0.3 (44)	0.4 (59)	0.3 (42)	0.3 (17)
Other	0.0 (0)	0.0 (2)	0.0 (5)	0.1 (4)
Canadian triage, median (IQR)	4 (3–4)	• 4 (3–4)	4 (3–4)	4 (3–4)	<0.01
Canadian triage, % (n)					<0.001
Level 1	0.1 (16)	0.1 (13)	0.1 (23)	0.1 (8)
Level 2	3.6 (582)	3.8 (598)	4.2 (659)	3.6 (218)
Level 3	37.7 (6112)	39.1 (6203)	38.2 (6031)	31.2 (1879)*
Level 4	56.1 (9095)	54.9 (8715)	55.5 (8758)	55.6 (3346)
Level 5	1.9 (300)	1.7 (276)	1.4 (222)	7.5 (450)*a
Without triageb	0.7 (111)	0.5 (76)	0.5 (76)	1.9 (116)*

IQR, interquartile range; NHS, National Health Service; EMS, Emergency Medical Services

*Statistically significant value

^aThis value is over inflated by the internal decision to assign this priority to elective screening for SARS-CoV-2 performed in ES

^bInformation technology services failure